Empty Chairs at Empty Tables
by Juu
Summary: An aging Son Goku looks back on the deaths of all his friends........and blames himself for them happening. He has to choose: will he come to terms with his grief or be overcome by it?


Empty Chairs at Empty Tables   
  
  
  


Son Goku looked around his home. It was aging, quiet, and empty, much like himself. He wasn't nearly as young as he used to be; in fact he was nearing over 100 years old. His 101st birthday was in two days. He loathed the thought of it. The fact that he had lived while all his friends had......had.......   
  


There is a grief that can't be spoken 

There is a pain goes on and on....   
  


Goku shook his head quickly, trying to force back the tears that stung painfully in his eyes. He still couldn't think about them with out feeling an enormous pain rip through his entire body. Taking a deep breath the aging Saiyan sat down at his kitchen table. At one time, it seemed so long ago now, his friends had gathered there over and over again. Sometimes, they were there to celebrate good things, like birthdays or weddings or the birth of a baby in the group. Other times they gathered to discuss a serious threat to the Earth. But in the last 30 or so years, they had gathered too many times to hear the awful news that someone had to tearfully give.   
  


Empty chairs at empty tables 

Now my friends are dead and gone....   
  


An ache pounded through Goku's soul as he looked around at the barren chairs. He 

almost hear them talking, laughing. He heard Piccolo's somber voice explaining about some new threat. Vegeta bragged about some new found strength of his. Krillin tried to laugh off the seriousness of the situation. All of them, revving themselves up for the battle that awaited them. 

Here they talked of revolution 

Here it was they lit the flame 

Here they sang about tomorrow 

And tomorrow 

Never came.....   
  


Goku always had loved his friends. He'd always thought that if they were going to die, 

they would die fighting, doing what they did best. Goku feared losing his friends more than anything else, and he had vowed to never let anything harm them. While it may had made him seem like he had an inflated ego, he did whatever necessary to take on evil alone. That way, he'd thought, they couldn't die. He'd never expected.......ever......that......   
  


From the table in the corner 

They could see a world reborn 

And they rose with voices ringing 

And I can hear them now......   
  


Tenshinhan had been the first one to leave the living realm behind. While training, he 

had pushed himself too far. He didn't realize how much energy he was putting into the new technique he was practicing with and essentially weakened himself to the point where he couldn't sustain his life anymore. Chout'zu had been the one to find him, and died himself a week after his best friend's funeral. No one was exactly sure what had caused Chout'zu's death, but it was the silent agreement between the others that he'd lost his will for life after Tenshinhan died.   
  


No more than three years later, old age and emphysema caught up with Bulma. She hadn't been much of a smoker; she only had one or two when she was stressed out, but it had been enough. She died, peacefully enough though, in her sleep. Trunks woke up the next morning to his father's terrified scream and found Vegeta holding Bulma in his arms with tears streaming down his face. He'd demanded that Trunks bring her back, and Trunks had to explain to his own father that his mother could never come back. Bulma's funeral had been hard on everybody and some of them never fully recovered from it. Especially Vegeta. While Bura and Trunks managed to move on and continue with their lives, Vegeta shrank further away from everybody. He killed himself with an energy blast seven months after his mate died.   
  


Things got pretty quiet after Vegeta died. Goku and Chi-chi began to spend more time together. The boys had moved out, so they were living alone. They talked more, and both of them began to understand each other. Goku spent so much time with Chi-chi at home that it was nearly a month before he learned of Yamcha's death. He'd had a severe heart attack and passed on two days after it. Puar had been so distraught that she hadn't called anyone to tell them for weeks. The poor thing was devastated. After Yamcha died his lifelong companion moved into Kame House permanently, where she spent what remained of her life, which wasn't much.   
  


Piccolo left for space a year later. He said he was going to return to Namek, but no one ever saw him after that. Goku threw himself back into training, even though he was, by earth years, too old to be doing such things. But Goku was a Saiyan, the last full bred one at that, so he forced himself to keep up his strength. Besides, his age might be old, but his body still looked like one of a forty year old man. Even then he denied that he would outlive the remaining friends he had. He didn't want to think about it. He only had Krillin and Chi-chi left of the original group. He forced himself to believe that they would live forever. He ignored the wrinkles that appeared at the corners of their eyes and hands. He ignored the graying in their hair. All things considered, they still didn't look that old, thanks to the way they kept in shape. Goku focused on the ways they were young and refused to believe anything that would cause him to think they would leave him. Even when Krillin told him about his illness Goku had just shrugged it off.   
  


"...........They told me I might only have a few months left, Goku," Krillin had told him, that day at the lake. Goku stared into the water and looked from his reflection; still youthful and nearly devoid of wrinkles, just very sad looking; to that of his best friend; pale and drawn with tired eyes and graying hair. He'd shaken it off, telling himself it was just the way the water reflected, and forced a smile.   
  


"Doctors always say things like that. You can beat this virus thing; besides, you don't even look sick," Goku replied, his voice pseudo-cheerful. Krillin had forced a smile and agreed, but by the next spring he was losing his battle with the virus. He couldn't fight anymore and died at home with Juuhachigou and Marron at his side.   
  


The very words that they had sung 

Became their last communion   
  


After that, Juuhachigou disappeared. Only Marron knew exactly where she had gone, and all she would say was that she had left to be with Krillin again. Goku felt dead inside. Nothing could cheer him up, not even Gohan and Goten. He became even more overprotective of Chi-chi but he'd failed to protect her, he couldn't stop the same virus that took his best friend from taking his wife. And now he was alone. Even when his son's and grandchildren visited, he was still alone.   
  


Goku leapt up from the table and yelled with a voice full of grief. He had sworn to protect his friends with his life and what had happened?! He had lost them all! They were all gone, and he was still alive!   
  


Oh, my friends my friends forgive me! 

That I live and you are gone 

There's a grief that can't be spoken 

There's a pain goes on and on   
  


The last Saiyan fell to his knees, sobs racking his body. Why did he live? Why, when 

everything he cared for was gone? He needed them; as much as he loved his sons they weren't enough. They weren't Yamcha, or Tenshinhan, or Bulma, or Krillin, or Chi-chi. Goku wanted to die. Why shouldn't he?! What was stopping him? Vegeta had taken his own life, why couldn't he?! Gohan and Goten would be fine without him; they were grown up and had lives of their own. He longed to see his friends again, for real, not just in his dreams.   
  


Phantom faces at the window 

Phantom shadows on the floor 

Empty chairs and empty tables 

Where my friends will meet no more   
  


Mind made up, Goku stood up. His eyes still overflowed with tears. They dripped down 

onto the floor, creating a glistening puddle of sorrow.   
  


Oh my friends, my friends don't ask me! 

What your sacrifice was for 

Empty chairs and empty tables 

Now my friends will sing no more.   
  


"I'm coming you guys!!" Goku shouted at the heavens. Soon, there would be no more pain, no more sadness, no more loneliness. It was selfish of him, he knew, but how could it be selfish when no one needed him and all he loved awaited him on the other side. He easily powered energy into his fist. It would only take a moment and then.......he would me released. Smiling, he raised his fist and plunged it deep into his chest. There was pain, yes, but it was nothing compared to the agony of losing his friends. Then the pain faded and he saw them, their figures outlined by a bright light and their faces shadowed. *I'm coming.....*   
  


********************************************************************************   
  


The next day.......   
  


Son Gohan approached the door to the house where he had grown up. The adults he'd been friends with in his youth were now all gone and it hurt him greatly. He missed them so much he was blinded by it sometimes. Sometimes he would forget they were gone, and go to the phone to call one of them for advice, or to tell them good news, or something like that. Then he would remember and the wound would open all over again. But at least he still had his father. Well, in a way at least. Goku wasn't the same. He seemed lost in a maze of despair and no one could pull him out. Gohan hoped for the day when he would at last be happy again. He missed hearing his dad laugh.   
  


Suppressing a sigh, the demi-Saiyan opened the door. "Dad?" No answer. "Dad?" Still no answer. Gohan began to have a bad feeling. He attempted to search for his father's energy signal but found none. Hoping it was just because he hadn't used the technique for a while, Gohan moved on into the kitchen. And there was Son Goku, lying in a pool of blood, having gone at last to rejoin his friends.   
  


Tears filled Gohan's eyes as he ran to his father's body. Crying, he hugged him to him and choked out "Dad, how could you! We still need you....." Then, tears still flowing, Gohan raised his head and gazed at his dad's face. He was surprised to see a slight smile still on Goku's face. It was the first time in years that Gohan had seen Goku smiling.   
  


Just then, a slight breeze blew threw the open window of the kitchen. As it blew through Gohan's hair, it was almost as if he could hear the voices of all his friends riding on the wind. They were laughing. And now, the voice of Son Goku could be heard laughing with them.   
  


The End   
  


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Song: Empty Chairs..... copyright: The musical Les Miserables Lyrics by: Herbert -Kretzmer 


End file.
